The Book That Saved My Life

There was something eerie about the day, Friday March 30th, 2014. I’d had a rough day at work and decided to drive down to Orange County from LA to see my family. As I headed back and got on the freeway, I looked to my left to merge and saw two headlights headed straight for me. Within seconds, I was t-boned and in a double impact went head first into the freeway side wall. I somehow got out of the car without any visible injuries, completely shaken as I’d just seen my life flash before my eyes. I spent the next three months going to doctors due to various symptoms that would pop up and to top it off, my joy in life had disappeared. I could only see darkness and I didn’t know how to find a way out. I asked my angel guides including my grandmother for help as I knew this was bigger than me and I couldn’t just keep pushing through.

The following week, I met up with my mentee for dinner and to walk around The Grove. As we were strolling through, we decided to go into Barnes & Noble to peruse some books. As we were walking around, I felt a pull to a specific table with books. I looked over them and one in particular caught my eye, The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It stuck out to me because I had just heard his quote “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated,” from my friends mom that had really sat with me as I was trying to pull myself out of the darkness. What was even more interesting is that this friend in particular had loved Hemingway, he was her favorite author and she had sadly passed the year before. I picked up the book, read the back and then put it down and walked away. Again, I felt a pull to go back to the table and pick up the book. There was something about it that kept drawing me in and I told myself that I would purchase the book when I got home from Amazon. I walked away and again, the same feeling pulled me back to the book again and I decided to google it to see if there was something special about the book.

As the search results popped up, there was one headline that glaringly stood out to me and it included the quote about defeat that I mentioned above. In that instant, I knew I was being guided to read the book that night. I purchased the book right then and there and headed home to read a chapter, only to stay up until 4 in the morning reading. As I read the book, I felt the message being sent through to me that I would prevail through the darkness and see light again, I just had to believe in myself and keep going. Over the course of the 5 hours of reading the book, I wept through the majority of it, releasing all my sadness and pain from the car accident. The book changed my life and perspective in one night and I woke up the next morning grateful and energized, ready to begin living my life again knowing that my dear friend (and angels) had sent it to me.